For this week's Shooting Challenge, we're playing with the human mind. How do you know something in a picture is really that large or small? Or put differently, why the hell did no one tell me I was a giant??

The Challenge

Trick our sense of scale using forced perspective. In other words, I ask that no one goes the tilt-shift or macro route. We're not creating miniatures through lens distortion as much as we're abusing the basic laws of perspective for our adolescent giggles.

The Method

We're all familiar with crushing friends' heads with our fingers, but for a bit more on the techniques behind forced perspective, Environmental Graffiti's tutorial is loaded with examples and tips. But the best advice? The simpler the landscape, the more fake-able the effect.

The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the "challenge" part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com.
5. Include 800px wide image AND 2560x1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.)

Send your best entries by Sunday, February 14th at 6PM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Forced Perspective" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg (800px) and FirstnameLastnameWALLPAPER.jpg (2560px) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email.

I can't wait to see what you come up with! (Just don't squish my head again, it's surprisingly painful.) [Image source]

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Gizmodo's Shooting Challenge is a weekly opportunity to dust off that fancy dSLR and experiment with hundreds of others in a new photography theme announced every Wednesday. May the best shot rule the internet for a week!
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